A Simple Tactic

[nine-o]

Here's a nice, simple set of tactics you can use to get started!

1. Players: The most important part is team-wide skill and speed - its the sole focus, d-men and forwards. I aim for lines 1-4 (and the entire defense) to be composed entirely of players with a minimum of 13 (ideally 15 or higher, especially with speed) in speed, acceleration, stick-handling and passing. Every other consideration, including size, is secondary to those 4 traits. Set your lineup however you’d like - I typically try to balance out the scoring among all four lines, but I don’t think it matters greatly.

2. Practice: For all players, I have them practice intensely on conditioning, skating, offensive and defensive skills. Everything else medium. Coaches are evenly spread among each practice type, with an extra priority put on skating.

3. Tactics: Leave the positioning, forecheck, etc set to their defaults - you want to play a simple, position-based game. Share ice time equally - power play and regular strength. Roll those lines! Set team-wide tactics (no unit tactics) to the following:
- Gap Control - tight
- Backchecking - hard
- Passing - creative
- Dumping the Puck - rarely (very rarely if you have good offensive d-men)
As far as personal tactics go, I choose the shoot/pass bias based on what they’re best at, and everyone should be able to carry the puck and join the rush. I'll give the odd tough guy permission to hit hard, and the odd sniper permission to shoot a bit more, but otherwise I don't deviate from the defaults.

What you end up with is a defensively solid team (the backchecking and gap control, combined with overall team speed, seems to disrupt everything the other team tries to do) capable of quick breakouts and nasty counter attacks. They’ll almost always outshoot the opponent, putting less pressure on you to find a dynamite goalie. Seems to cut down on injuries too, I'm guessing the more even distribution of ice time helps with that but I'm not sure. Hope it wins someone some cups!

[Corwin86]

Thanks, I'm currently trying it!

Can you please share a scan (a photo) of your tactic, to check if I'm using it correctly? Thanks

[SetzingersCat]

Sounds interesting. Which league did you try this in? Also, did you sign coaches with specific preferences?

[nine-o]

Sounds interesting. Which league did you try this in? Also, did you sign coaches with specific preferences?

I've tried it in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, CHL (QMJHL and OHL, haven't tried the west) and KHL. I've never not finished first - even with less-than-ideal players its been a winner for me. I'm a little iffy on some of the mechanics behind the coaching, so I'm not sure if this is the best approach, but I've aimed to have at least 2 coaches with 12+ attributes in goaltending, defensemen, forwards and tactics. I try to find coaches that want to roll lines, but if given a choice between a coach with higher attributes and a coach that rolls lines... I go for the attributes.

Can you please share a scan (a photo) of your tactic, to check if I'm using it correctly? Thanks

No trouble at all, I'll upload one tonight (east coast of Canada, still at work haha).

[nine-o]

As requested!

http://pasteboard.co/3aAjbGiJt.png

[SetzingersCat]

Sounds great, I'll give this a try in the SHL tonight, I think! My Malmö team have just started to lose a bit of form, maybe it'll rejuvenate them a little

[philou21]

I've tried it in the NHL, AHL, ECHL, CHL (QMJHL and OHL, haven't tried the west) and KHL. I've never not finished first - even with less-than-ideal players its been a winner for me. I'm a little iffy on some of the mechanics behind the coaching, so I'm not sure if this is the best approach, but I've aimed to have at least 2 coaches with 12+ attributes in goaltending, defensemen, forwards and tactics. I try to find coaches that want to roll lines, but if given a choice between a coach with higher attributes and a coach that rolls lines... I go for the attributes.

I'll try it in my current game in the WHL. I'm curious to try something to shake my team since in the junior since no matter how good your players can be they never seem to perform at an equal rate, especially in the playoffs. In my four seasons my star players are always choking in the playoffs while the AI stars keep going strong, which is a huge disappointment and a bit frustrating I must say. I'll see if a change of tactic can change something.

[nine-o]

In my four seasons my star players are always choking in the playoffs while the AI stars keep going strong, which is a huge disappointment and a bit frustrating I must say. I'll see if a change of tactic can change something.

I'm almost glad someone else experienced this problem haha. Sure is maddening, though its probably done on purpose (they're kids, they get tired more easily, yada yada).

The only thing that's worked for me is balancing out my scoring evenly among three or even four lines (I play the Screaming Eagles in the Q... not exactly teeming with talent so its three for me) and using your overage slots to load up on goaltending, which I find particularly flaky when you get into the Memorial Cup... but yeah man, you aren't alone there haha. Let me know if you figure anything out!

[philou21]

I'm almost glad someone else experienced this problem haha. Sure is maddening, though its probably done on purpose (they're kids, they get tired more easily, yada yada).

But why the AI players don't seem to have this problem though? That's why it's frustrating. One of me player finished first scorer of the league with 112 pts in 72 games with a ratio of 8.3! In the playoffs we get kicked out in 5 games by the bottom team in the first round and in those games he did 3 pts with a ratio of 7.3. He's always been a clutch player in the regular season but now it's all gone? I know some players are really like that IRL but when your three stars who all did over 100 pts and 8 of ratio in the regular do that in playoffs, that's just weird IMO. It's almost like the game wants the AI to have an advantage. Since all those years I'm playing EHM I know it's not how the game works but still....it sucks.

It's just a bit demoralizing that each season when your team finish in the top 5 in the league it's always the same song. I really want to have a career that I'm starting at the bottom than reach the NHL one day but I just don't see how the hell I could win the Memorial Cup! I might get tired at some point and apply for a higher league even though I won nothing at all.

The only thing that's worked for me is balancing out my scoring evenly among three or even four lines (I play the Screaming Eagles in the Q... not exactly teeming with talent so its three for me) and using your overage slots to load up on goaltending, which I find particularly flaky when you get into the Memorial Cup... but yeah man, you aren't along there haha. Let me know if you figure anything out!

Except from my first line who destroyed everything in it's path, the other lines did alright I must say. My second line did good, they were all around 50-60 pts. Third line and fourth line all finished with 20-30 pts. I wish my third line would do a bit better though.

[philou21]

So I've tried your tactic in the WHL and it works really well. I changed it before the playoffs and we made a pretty good run towards the finale and won it. The last two serie we won in 7 though. We were trailing 1-3 in the finale and I did a little tweak in the tactic and we bounce back to win game 7 in OT. We lost the Memorial Cup title in OT though which suck but at least there is alot of improvement compare to the other years.

The small tweak I did was simply to put back passing to normal instead of creative. I noticed that with that strategy you score alot more goals but my goalies are kinda weak, so we also let more goals in. The first 3 rounds of the playoffs we managed to outscore our opponent most of the time but in the finale it was a huge problem since the other team was highly skilled. Just by doing that they started to score less but not us, so we took the momentum. I'll definitely try this tactic next season.

[nine-o]

So I've tried your tactic in the WHL and it works really well. I changed it before the playoffs and we made a pretty good run towards the finale and won it. The last two serie we won in 7 though. We were trailing 1-3 in the finale and I did a little tweak in the tactic and we bounce back to win game 7 in OT. We lost the Memorial Cup title in OT though which suck but at least there is alot of improvement compare to the other years.

The small tweak I did was simply to put back passing to normal instead of creative. I noticed that with that strategy you score alot more goals but my goalies are kinda weak, so we also let more goals in. The first 3 rounds of the playoffs we managed to outscore our opponent most of the time but in the finale it was a huge problem since the other team was highly skilled. Just by doing that they started to score less but not us, so we took the momentum. I'll definitely try this tactic next season.

Awesome, good to hear - its a fun one to tweak a little too, as its so simple. I'm only 50/50 in the Memorial Cup as well - junior is hard haha.

[SetzingersCat]

I also gave this a go. It seems to benefit me more when I'm playing stronger teams though! I tend to use a more offensive tactic I created myself which is also based around speed and creativity, but I used this one in the Champions Hockey League and managed to win it with Nottingham Panthers (4th season).

Having a great goaltender seems to have helped me a lot but I have some really pacey and creative D-men and forwards. Because of the way I already play, my players fit this tactic pretty well too as a kind of more careful strategy, which is cool. Weirdly, my powerplay seems to have been more successful too. Maybe a coincidence! Thanks nine-o!

[philou21]

Having a good goalie is a must. Like I said in my save I think my team was pushing too hard, thus creating more turnovers and allowing more goals. Just adjusting the passing down helped a bit. I also make 1 defenseman per duo join the rush so one stays behind.

[SetzingersCat]

Makes sense! I don't feel there's any kind of tactic that's plug and play, I enjoy playing around with systems a bit, all part of the fun.

I need to toughen my teams up a little bit. Have too much of an obsession with offensive D-men, which probably isn't too healthy.

[nine-o]

Awesome, glad you guys had some fun with it. Its really simple and infinitely tweak-able - but I'm hoping this gets a few people past that "I can't win a darn thing" learning curve a little faster haha. Its interesting you guys found goaltending challenging with this system - this makes me wonder if I can't improve the defensive aspects of it a little, while keeping the offensively-awesome parts of it intact.

It'll have to wait tho - I plan on simulating Don Cherry's fantasy world and trying to create successful dump and chase tactics haha. So far... not great.

[Shindigs]

If you want to take things a step further, look into getting 1 defensively responsible 2way/def forward on each line and put him one click lower on how offensive he plays (if the line is on "offensive, put him on "normal" etc.) and make sure that each of your defensive pairings is one offensive/2way and one slightly more defensive dman, the more defensive dman should also be 1 click lower than the line in genereral and both the forward and dman should have "join the rush" unticked and backchecking on "very hard". Before every game lookup the top 2 goalscorers for your opponent's first line and setup the defensive forward and the defensive dman to check one each. Against teams that are a 1 line wonder this completely kills their goal-scoring. Against teams that are deeper it still normally stop at least 1 goal per game.

I'd also advice to set each player's personal tactics to have them play at a level of aggression that fits their aggression attribute. Any player with at least 12/12 passing/cre can be on creative passing. Shooting really varies from player to player, some will really improve their scoring by shooting less, more accurate, shots. But some just need to shell the net to get it done.

If you want to mix up your line's tactical shapes a bit I warmly recommend using Free-flowing, grouped, Overload slot. Even my finesse forwards thrive with it. The idea isn't so much to play a physical style as it's to "trick" the game engine into forcing as many cross-crease chances as possible, since those are the premiere source of goals. Grouped makes your opposite winger get a big further into the center of the ice on the break-in and Overload slot means he'll crash the net (as much as anyone can in EHM). This coupled with the checking of the top players on the opposing team leads to a very oppressive possession type game.

It's pretty standard for me to sit in the 1k-1.2k more shots on goal than shots conceded per season in the NHL using it. So far I've gotten 6 Cups in 7 years, won 7 President's Trophies, Scored 320 or more goals every season and conceded less than 200 goals in 2 of the last 3 seasons. We've seen 3 20 game winning streaks and our best season to date we ended with 92.7 Pct and 74 wins.

You really shouldn't underestimate how important personal tactics are for your players. When I trade away 70 point scorers to the AI they turn into 30-40 point scorers over night, since the AI doesn't use them. Having players play to their attributes, as close to their "natural game" as possible has a huge impact on performance (about 60% increase, give or take). Since you are also trying to leverage speed (as do I, generally) you pretty much need to have your top 6 on "higher" tempo, they won't fully utilize their speed on normal in my experience. "Very High" actually makes your top 6 play noticeably worse, so avoid that. However having your bottom 6 and your Dmen* on Very High is generally a very solid idea, since they have so little icetime comparably that playing more like an energy line is very useful, since they will often play against weaker opposition (and weaker is usually slower) that extra burst of speed can be quite lethal. It's not unheard of to have 20+ goals on more than 1 of my 4th liners as a result.

*Some of your lower stamina/workrate/natural fitness dmen won't be able to handle very high, but really you'd want to replace those anyways. And though your Dmen have a lot of icetime Dmen have much more condition than forwards in EHM. Use it to your advantage.

And as a final note, shot targetting; use it. It's so good. I personally have a spreadsheet where I input the shots on goal and goals scored against every goalie in the NHL for each shot targetting mode, this allows me to almost completely offset the goaltending of the opposition. For example, Crawford's a pretty good goalie, right? Not when you shot target low on him he isn't. He's a .904 goalie lifetime against us. Most lower skill goalies you can get as low as .86x reliably. Since CHL goalies are questionable at best, they will have even bigger holes to abuse in their game. General rule of thumb is this:
Low reflexes+low agi = Low targetting (low is 16 or less in the NHL, adjust accordingly for your level)
Low reflexes but high agi = 5-hole targetting
If neither of those produce good enough results you can look into using high shot targetting, the only time I've ever needed to was against Pekka Rinne in his prime. So that's really rare.

Edit: As a note on passing, the key factor to good passing isn't passing, it's creativity and/or Anticipation. I'll get in two screenshots here and you can guess which one of them has 78% pass completion on "normal", and which has 84% completion on "creative":
High Passing, Low Creativity and Anticipation, 14 Decisions. (Oh hey, he just grew! he was actually 7 ant+cre and 18 Passing for the season)

Low Passing, Mid Creativity, Lowish Anticipation, 6 Decisions.

as you can see pretty much anyone with 7+ passing can do creative passing so long as they have 12+ creativity (and maybe anticipation, but possibly just a coincidence). Whereas someone with 18 Passing still can't get acceptable completion on "normal" when the Creativity is poor. This is why I never draft pure stay-at-home defence. Their pass completion kills whatever extra defensive prowess they showed to get the puck. If Lennon Blixt wasn't a 2nd overall draftpick that I got in the lottery with a traded for 1st rounder belonging to the team with 1% chance in the lottery. I'd never have drafted him. But he's won 2 Selkie's in 3 full seasons. So I'm not complaining, but I am setting him to safe passing!

[SetzingersCat]

Shindigs, I like people like you. Thanks for all the info and tips!

[nine-o]

Shindigs, I like people like you. Thanks for all the info and tips!

What he said haha, awesome

[Shindigs]

Shindigs, I like people like you. Thanks for all the info and tips!

What he said haha, awesome

Thanks for the kind words guys. I was just equally excited to find a winning combo as you were nine-o, so I wanted to share it. The tactics I described above are the ones that lead to the screenshots I've been spamming over in the General forum screenshot thread.

[philou21]

I've tried shot targetting since yesterday in my WHL save and it seems to help a bit combined with nine-o tactic. I'm scoring a bit more goals against specific teams that seems to have my number all the time.

[Shindigs]

I've tried shot targetting since yesterday in my WHL save and it seems to help a bit combined with nine-o tactic. I'm scoring a bit more goals against specific teams that seems to have my number all the time.

I sadly can't remember who wrote about primarily using low and 5-hole here. I read it like march last year. But man that was some of the best advice I've ever gotten on these forums. Very few goalies are good against both. If you actually watch your game in 2D and coach if you haven't scored in about 15 shots with one, just swap to the other and you generally will get some late ones in. I don't so I have to pick one or the other before the game and pray they don't use their backup (in the few cases where the backup and starter aren't weak to the same thing)

[philou21]

I don't like watching my games in 2D but what I'm doing is that if I haven't scored in one period I switch to the other one. If it's not working I try to "high" option to see if it changes something. Like you said, you always find his weakness at one point.

[Shindigs]

I don't like watching my games in 2D but what I'm doing is that if I haven't scored in one period I switch to the other one. If it's not working I try to "high" option to see if it changes something. Like you said, you always find his weakness at one point.

Unless he's freaking Pekka Rinne. High was his "weakness" at .920. Sadly for him he picked up a repeat UCL-tear in season one of my Jets save. He missed 4 months every single season until he retired, which on the plus side meant I never had to face him in the playoffs. But man that's a horrible way for a career to end.

[philou21]

Well, despite their poor attributes some goalies in junior are anormally really good for that level and perform like a junior Rinne. So high can be usefull.

[Shindigs]

Yeah, everything is relative. Getting a good goalie yourself in juniors can be something of a challenge, and it's so much harder to get consistency without it. Nothing like your goalie blowing a 3 goal lead in the final 5 minutes. But with checking their top 2 scorers and targetting their goalie's weak spot it's usually enough to tip the scales in your favor.